Cora Rainey: All right. Hi, everyone. Welcome. And good afternoon. Thank you for attending the CAEP State Budget Update and Allocation Amendment webinar. Next slide, please.

So my name is Cora Rainey. I am the program manager for the Adult Education Program here at the Chancellor's Office. Today, I am joined by Diana Batista from the California Department of Education, and of course, Mandilee Gonzales from CAEP TAP. Next slide.

All right. So on today's agenda, we will go over the State budget for the fiscal year 2025 to '26. We'll take a peek at the CAEP allocation guidance memo. We'll also give you an overview of the State allocation process. We also have some reminders for some upcoming CAEP deliverables. And Mandilee will also provide a tutorial on the allocation certification process in NOVA. And at the very end, we will open it up for questions. All right, next slide. Thank you.

All right. So here is a high-level overview of CAEP allocations for the past two years, starting with 24 to 25 allocation, which was that $653,137,000, and that included a 1.7 or 1.07 COLA increase.

In January of this year, the governor proposed a $669,008,000 budget, and this was to also include a 2.43 COLA increase. However, in late June, the final enacted State budget for CAEP landed at $668,159,000, which includes a 2.3 COLA increase, so less than what was initially proposed in January. However, this year's allocation is still an increase from the 24 to 25 allocation range. Next slide, please.

All right. So here is an overview of CAEP annual allocations spanning back to the 2017 to '18 program year. And as we can see, funding for CAEP has steadily increased, solidifying the State's commitment to adult learners and CAEP program. Next slide, please.

All right. So a couple of weeks ago, on July 10, the CAEP State Office released our official final allocation memo for fiscal year 2025 to '26. If you had not had a chance to view the memo, that QR code will take you right there. And if we go on to the next slide.

So this memo is actually housed in the Cal Adult Ed web page. So you can find it under Administrators, Funding, Annual CAEP Allocations. And it will be listed under '25 to '26 program year. And this memo was also promoted via the CAEP newsletter.

And in the memo, most importantly, you will find a link to the '25 to '26 final allocation amounts that are broken out by consortia and their respective members. The memo also gives you an overview of the NOVA amendment process, which Mandilee will talk more about later in our presentation, and also separate instructions for our direct funded members. OK. Next slide.

All right. So there are two key dates in the CAEP State allocation process. The first date is July 15. And by this date, every year, ed code mandates that the Chancellor's Office and CDE provide the Department of Finance with the allocation schedule of CAEP consortia. In addition, this is the deadline of when the State office is to notify the field of the final allocation amounts.

And as I previously noted, the field was notified via our final allocation memo that was released on July 11. So next, the legislation also requires that the State release CAEP funds within 45 days of the budget enactment. And this is to be released in 11 installments through June of this program year. Next slide, please.

All right. So the State process continued. So allocation amounts for CAEP members must be confirmed after the State budget is passed, around July 1. In past years, we've seen this happen around mid-June. However, this year, it happened at the very last moment, on June 30. And because the legislature provided a COLA increase for the CAEP program, consortia are then expected to conduct an allocation amendment in NOVA by September 1. Next slide, please.

All right. So on our end, on the State's end, we have updated NOVA to reflect the amended amount by the consortium. And now, it's the consortium's turn to enter and certify the allocation amount for their own member agencies. Again, this process is due September 1.

And for direct members, it's a little bit of a different process. The State has already determined the amounts for our direct funded members, and they're listed in that allocation memo. However, it still needs to be manually entered in NOVA, again, by September 1. OK. Next slide.

All right. So here, we have an overview of the entire process. And it all starts with the preliminary allocations released earlier this year, February 28. Consortia were expected to take those preliminary allocations and complete and certify their CFAD by May 2.

Then in May, the State works out their final budget. And once everything is finalized, the CAEP State office then does their calculations, and then we submit the final allocation schedule to the Department of Finance by that July 15 deadline. And by August 15, the State begins the process of CAEP funds disbursements.

And the last step for the whole allocation process is for consortia to then conduct their allocation amendments in NOVA, and again, certify by that September 1 date. And with that, I'm going to pass it over to Diana. Next slide, please.

Diana Batista: Thanks, Cora. Good afternoon, everyone. So you might be wondering how the State office comes up with the amounts of the allocations for the local district level, and at the same time, meeting the July 15 deadline, where everything must be reported to the Department of Finance. And then you don't certify your allocation until September 1. I know there's a lot of dates involved in all of that, but it is a lengthy process. As Cora explained, we go from the preliminary to the final, which came in pretty late. So next slide.

So if there are any technical adjustments, as there were with the May revise to the State budget, we use the same funding formula as was developed in years past. And this action will satisfy the need to have the amounts for consortia with fiscal agents. Next slide.

But for direct funded members, the State will use the same proportional share that was approved via the CFAD that was submitted on May 2, and will adjust the budget upward or downward. So as Cora mentioned, in January, we thought we had a little bit more of a COLA. And then in June, we found out that it was slightly decreased. So we did have to make some changes. Let me show you an example. Next slide.

So in this example, you can see that members A, B, and C get 10% of the overall allocation. Member D gets 70%, and that equals 100% of the allocation amount. Next slide. So with the revise, which was an increase, members A, B, and C will get 10%, which equals 20,000. Member D will still get 70%, which equals 140,000. That comes to the new May revise allocation amount of $200,000. So next slide.

So there, you can see how the proportionate example shows the percentage share for each member, based on their allocation amount that was determined in the CFAD in May. OK. Next slide.

Question, if I'm a direct funded member, why is the State office calculating it? What if my consortia wants to do other things with the increase? And by the increase, we're talking about the COLA amount. So I don't want to read the slide completely to you, but basically, you have to remember all of the different rules that we follow under Ed Code 84914-- members receive no less than the prior year's amount, unless it meets a reason for funding reduction. COLA means cost-of-living increase for all member districts. All members in good standing receive the COLA.

The fiscal agent and direct funded member allocation schedules are due to the Department of Finance by July 15. And the funds will be distributed 45 days after the State budget is signed. So what that means is that everyone must have the same amount as the prior year, plus their cost of living increase. The COLA is to be used across all members in good standing. OK, next slide.

If I'm a direct funded agency, where do I find the predetermined amounts? And I feel like this was just recently shared in the chat as well as with the QR code. And it'll be in the slides. So the answer is next slide, see memos.

The direct funded members will find the link to the predetermined amounts in the CAEP allocation memo released July 11. If you want to make changes, we have to do so via the allocation amendment process. And then Mandilee is going to talk a little bit more about this, I think. The direct funded members must follow up locally to physically move and transfer funds among members.

The reminders for you-- go ahead, are that your annual plan will be due August 15. And that's going to follow the allocation that you will be preparing to submit. Carryover Compliance tracking is also underway. And the member carryover and consortia carryover are both being tracked. AB 1491 authorizes the consortia to reduce the member's excessive carryover funding after two years of excessive carryover has been determined.

The member carryover impacts consortia carryover. And consortia exceeding 20% carryover annually will be required to submit a written expenditure plan and assigned technical assistance by the Chancellor's Office and CDE.

So if I can pause for a moment, we just want to make sure that you're aware of this, but we will have a more detailed webinar and a lot more information to come prior to the dates. And Susan, thank you for putting that allocation amendment in the chat again.

So the Consortia Carryover Compliance Tracking, again, will be September 30, basically, at 11:59, I like to say midnight. And it will be flagging those consortia that have more than 20% carryover. So as a member, you want to pay attention to how much you're spending and what you're reporting. You need to report accurately. Last year, we had 33 consortia that exceeded the 20% consortia carryover, and that meant that we had to read and review 33 written expenditure plans to see how they were going to spend down their money.

This year, well, it will be the spending from '24, '25, will show the second consecutive year of tracking. Excessive member level carryover can prompt possible reallocation of member funds for consortium members that opted to participate after the snapshot. And as I said, we will have more details about that. But as you're working on your CFAD allocations, please pay attention to the member spending and the allocation amount that you're putting.

Now, I'd like to turn it over to Mandilee, who's going to give us a little live demo. Thank you.

Mandilee Gonzales: OK. So I'm going to go ahead and start sharing my screen, but I have to switch to NOVA. So a couple of things here. You can all let me know if you are now seeing NOVA. Thumbs up. Great. OK.

All right. So I know that this is something that many of you have done again and even throughout the year, but it is nice just to go over a quick review. So I am in the sandbox. This is a safe environment, meaning that while these are real numbers, anything I do or change in here will not impact any of the consortium who are listed here.

So I say that for two reasons-- one, I will not hurt anything that's going on in your NOVA. I will not impact it negatively. But I also want to point out that when we are going to the allocations, because it's a beta, it's a sandbox, it's not going to show what was recently done. So the total remaining here in the sandbox shows a zero.

So I am going to flip over. This is your live NOVA. So everyone, when you go into NOVA, under Consortia and Members, you go to your consortia, and you scroll to Allocations. As Cora mentioned, the State has already updated NOVA with what the new COLA numbers are.

Here, you're going to see a negative number. In the most recent last few years, we've always seen a positive number. So the allocation this year, you will be reducing by the same formula that you have reduced or the same percentages, just like Diana went over for every member.

I am not going to play with this, I will go back to the sandbox, but I just want to note that, just as a strong reminder, you will be reducing by the same formula that you would have increased in the preliminary allocation when you did your CFAD for May 2.

OK. So I'm going to pop back over to the sandbox. And you can see that Alan Hancock, because they're number 1, we've played with them a lot, so normally, it'll say Start Amendment, this one's going to say Continue Amendment. So we're going to move into this section here.

I do want to note, you want to always make sure that your certifiers are the right people for the different member agencies. If they are not, you're able to update and revise here. Along the left hand side, you have your main menu bar, and then you have your submenu bar here. This is going to be the workflow for the action that you're taking. And today, we are doing member allocation. So you can either click the box or there's always the Next button in the top right hand corner.

And this is a newer enhancement, it has been here, but I know that we have had some members maybe not realize that this was here last year when we were doing the May revise. We now have the ability to indicate what this allocation is for. So it's the May revise, a standard member transfer or a new member.

I know that it's been stated, but I just really want to drive this point home. Your COLA is the cost-of-living adjustment. Your preliminary allocation, that is the number that's sent out. There will be those adjustments in the May revise or the June trailer bill. That is still your base allocation. Those are your base numbers.

So I have heard where people say, oh, we're just going to swipe the COLA over to this member, or we want to use it for this project. When you do your may revise, we advise that you still follow your COLA, and you still follow the allocations based on the percentages and then if there are any other special projects, where money will be shifted to another amendment or another allocation.

And then that way, when you go into your history, it's really clean. If you ever have to unravel your numbers, it's easy to follow. Hey, this was the preliminary, this was the adjustment, this was a special project. So I'm just going to pause there. Oh, Susan's adding. Thank you, Susan. OK.

So for today's purposes, we're just going to go ahead and say, May revise, the explanation. It's a COLA adjustment. And then we're going to move forward. And then you will have your current allocation listed here. It's really straightforward. And then you will add in your proposed allocation here.

Oh, sorry, just want to make sure I'm in the sandbox. When you are done, you want to make sure that this total remaining is zero. So we have that $2,678. So here, I'm just going to do a calculator really quick. Sorry, you guys, I thought I had my numbers up, but something cleared on me so, I apologize.

So for Alan Hancock, we're just going to go ahead and say, they're being reduced by $773 in the proposed allocation. And then I have to do more math, so I'm really sorry. This is your live demonstration of me doing math. [chuckles] It's $1,220,935. And then that should bring me to zero.

This is showing you what those total adjustments were. As long as that is OK and approved by everybody in your consortia, you'll go ahead and click Next. This will give you the preview. And it'll go over everything that you have just done in the previous steps. And then you'll submit.

Once you submit, it'll give you an opportunity to leave any comments. I'm just going to go ahead and say any for right now. And then you move forward. And then once that is completed, your members will go in. And then they will go ahead and approve.

So you can do a couple of things. You can send them a reminder directly from NOVA, or they will know to go in, and then they will approve. Once they've approved, then your allocation is complete at that point. Any questions here? OK.

Diana Batista: Yes, you have a question from Dr. Weatherup. Did you go into allocations in NOVA and click Start Amendment?

Mandilee Gonzales: OK. I missed the first step. Yes, I did. Sorry, Dr. Weatherup. So I'll go back.

Audience: I think I got it. And then--

Mandilee Gonzales: You did.

Audience: --my other question that was answered by Holly, but just to let you know, was that, we have a meeting set next week for our consortium to vote on this amendment in the May revise. And Holly's saying that's actually not necessary because it's already a State decision. We don't vote on this amendment.

Mandilee Gonzales: Correct. So yes, you don't vote on this. Now, if there are other special projects that you want to vote on, that's when that would happen. I like to describe NOVA as a ledger. It really just shows what's going on in your actual books. This is what the legislative analyst's office looks at. This is what your CAEP leadership goes in to look at, to see your expenditures and your strategic planning, and then how that money is being moved around.

Audience: Great. Thank you.

Mandilee Gonzales: Any other questions here or anything else I can navigate? OK. I'm going to go ahead and go back to our PowerPoint then. Is everyone seeing the PowerPoint now? OK. Great. Thank you. Great.

So these are just some screenshots. And then once I remediate this slide deck, we'll go ahead and share it out with everyone, just so you can get a reminder of everything that we've covered. I do have screenshots of walking you through that allocation amendment, with little notes as to what it is and what to do next. So I'm just going to do a quick scroll through here. And that is it.

So now, we're going to wrap it up. If you have any questions regarding your fiscal year '25, '26, where to find it, or how to handle your allocation, we have Cora, and Diana, and myself here to support and help however we can. OK.

Diana Batista: Well, I think we should just point out what's in the chat, which maybe, everyone realizes, Yuline and Holly have been chatting about, that the CAEP amendment, the consortia doesn't vote on that, but everyone does need to approve it in NOVA once everything's been submitted. So if there's any--

Mandilee Gonzales: Yes.

Diana Batista: --members.

Mandilee Gonzales: Yes. Sorry if there was any misunderstanding there, but that is correct. Everyone still must approve those actions, but it's not something I--

Diana Batista: Not a vote.

Mandilee Gonzales: --can-- not a vote. Correct.

Diana Batista: Right. Do we have any other questions? OK. If we don't have any questions, I'd like to put in the chat that this month, we're going to be having WIOA AEFLA statewide meeting tomorrow at 1:00 PM. And I'm putting the registration in. Typically, it's the first Tuesday of the month, but this month, we're doing it a little bit early-- or I should say, for August, we're doing it a little bit early.

And I hope that many of you have heard that the funds are expected to be released for the WIOA II funding. And it will take us some time, once we get those notices of the actual amounts, to start working at CDE on the grant award notice.

So if you can just keep breathing and be patient, as Carolyn has said, I'm looking forward to working with all of you. And I'll be joined this year for CAEP leads with my colleague, Colby Franklin. He's not here today, but I'm sure, he'll be with us in the next meeting. And you'll be able to chat with him. Some of you may have already met him as he worked with us in the ADULTED office before.

Oh, Janice just put in a question. I think that's for you, Mandilee.

Mandilee Gonzales: Mm-hmm. Why does the top right corner of a completed allocation amendment say, produced date by member name? Let me take a look at it because I'm not-- hold on. I'll go ahead and do a screen share again.

Holly Clark: And Mandilee, I might be able to add to this. I believe, if Cora, Diana, you and I were all required to approve, and I was the last one to approve, I believe, what Janice is saying is, it would then show that it was approved [audio out] the one that made it official.

Mandilee Gonzales: OK, you cut out, but that sounds like what you're talking about. So sorry, Janice. I should now be sharing screen. Where are you talking about specifically? Because I'm not seeing it.

Audience: If you look at the completed amendment--

Mandilee Gonzales: Mm-hmm. OK.

Audience: Up right corner.

Mandilee Gonzales: I'm just going to go to a completed five amendment. Is this what you're talking about, here, produced by?

Audience: Yes.

Mandilee Gonzales: So it was completed on this date by this person?

Audience: Right.

Mandilee Gonzales: OK. And are you saying, in your instance, it's not somebody that's current?

Audience: No. Just like, if you're looking at historical things and trying to figure out how something happened, all it shows is who is the last person to sign it. And it doesn't show who actually created it, which I think is a little informative. And then the word "Produced" is not obvious either. So it's just a comment. I mean, it works just fine, but I'm just sharing that with you.

Mandilee Gonzales: Yeah. OK.

Audience: Susan says it's the audit record. It's the date it was amended, and who entered it.

Mandilee Gonzales: OK. Thank you, Susan. I was going to have to say, this would be a product ops question, but Susan's here, so then there's that.

All right, well, as we wrap things up, I do want to point out that we have the CAEP 2025 Summit, which is right around the corner. We've moved it up from October to September. So if you haven't had an opportunity already to register, we want to remind you that this September the 24 through the 26, it will be at the Marriott in Anaheim. And I'm quickly trying to grab the link, so we can make sure that everyone has an opportunity to register for the summit.

We have a really rich program planned. It is our partners and colleagues in OCE. They will be leading the event. So we're very excited to see everything that they have pulled together, of course, with our support and help as well.

And Holly, did you already drop that link? Oh, you have it. Thank you so much. So we also have a couple of things coming up. We have some additional professional development that will be released, like Diana had mentioned. We have some carryover compliance items, some other CAEP deliverables, as well as partnering with a WestEd and CASAS. And you'll see those on our event registration page. If there are no other questions--

Diana Batista: You do have a question.

Mandilee Gonzales: --we can move to close. I just saw it pop up. Hi, Jenée. After allocations have been changed to NOVA, the current allocation will still be in red, but the proposed allocation will equal zero. Correct.

So after you have entered in your allocations, on the allocation history, you'll see that there's a little drop down to view the history of amendments. What will still stay red is in your CFAD. It will always show the adjustment that was finaled after the final allocation. Is that what you're talking about, Jenée?

Audience: Hi, Mandilee. Thank you. No, I'm just in the allocation amendment right now, so I'm still on the page that says, type of allocation, May revise. Because we're direct funded, so I changed the proposed allocation numbers that are in the memo. And so now, that reads zero.

But the current allocations are still the previous that were put in there before. And so that's still in the red. And I just want to make sure that that's correct on our--

Mandilee Gonzales: Yeah. I just want to make sure I'm-- all right. I'm just sharing a screen again with NOVA.

Audience: Yeah. So--

Mandilee Gonzales: Right here, right?

Audience: I'm sorry. But that's on the main frame. So when you go into Amendment--

Mandilee Gonzales: I'm going to go into this. OK. Into here?

Audience: Yeah. So when the amendment had been started, yeah, so that current allocation will still--

Mandilee Gonzales: Be red.

Audience: --be red. Right. Right. Great. OK. And then that one is zero. All right. Thank you.

Mandilee Gonzales: Yup. No problem.

Audience: And then I was just wondering if Diana could repeat what you said about the WIOA II funding being released? Thank you.

Diana Batista: Yes. I'm sorry. I'm a little excited about it, so I might be talking too fast. We were notified, late Friday afternoon, that all of the other funds that had been withheld are going to be released, and we should get notification sometime this week.

And the other thing I said is that it will take us some time, at CDE, to look through the numbers, not sure what they are, and we're hoping that it will include ELC or 243 funding. But it will take us some time to work through it. I'm sure, Carolyn will mention it on the Cal Flow statewide tomorrow. And just keep being patient, but we're not going to have to keep advising you about CAEP versus WIOA and yeah, supplemental versus supplanting. I think that we're going to be able to work all of that out.

I do want to just say one other thing that's been brought to my attention, that since the numbers with the change in the allocation amounts, because of the COLA amount, that it is a change from your CFAD.

So probably, the discussion about the final allocation amendment and so forth should be recognized at a board meeting, a public meeting, so that it's included in your minutes, that you will be following the allocation amendments as distributed. And that will be your official funding for the year. I hope that makes sense. I should say, two different things-- WIOA, and now, I'm back on CAEP.

Mandilee Gonzales: OK. Any other questions? All right. Well, I would like to thank my colleague, Holly Clark, for assisting, as always, Diana Batista of the CDE, Cora Rainey with the Chancellor's Office. Thank you, both, for coming here today and presenting on our fiscal year final allocation webinar.

If there are any additional questions, anyone, please feel free to reach out to CAEP at caladulted.org. And we will continue to support you there. Looking forward to seeing everyone at the next webinar. And I hope to see you all at the CAEP Summit 2025. Thank you. And bye for now.